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5th March 2008
Rev Fred Nile Supports Electricity Supply Protection
The Rev Hon Fred Nile MLC, Leader of the Christian Democratic Party, gave the following address before the Legislative Council in State Parliament yesterday:
“I support the Electricity Supply Amendment (Offences) Bill. The aim of the bill is to amend the Electricity Supply Act 1995 to strengthen the protection of vital electricity infrastructure. Electricity supply is very important and the bill will help to ensure its reliable supply to the people of New South Wales. It is important that every part of our society, whether in our cities, towns, villages or farms, has reliable access to electricity. It is now part of modern society and we cannot function without the guarantee of continuous supply of electrical power. I am pleased to support the bill”, Rev Nile said.
“We must also ensure safety of our electrical infrastructure because we know that in the past children and teenagers who have climbed over fences into an isolated electrical power station that is not encased in a building but simply surrounded with a fence, have died or have been seriously injured. It is important to guarantee that each location is safe and that is why we support the provision in the bill that creates a new criminal offence of entering, climbing or being on electrical works with a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and/or three months imprisonment.
It is also important, in the face of the continuous threat of terrorism, to make the law stronger to prevent people from entering these places. We know that in other countries it has been very easy to disable a society by damaging towers or power lines with an explosive and to do that at a certain time so as to cause maximum disruption to society. That is an added threat to a reliable source of power.
The bill also increases the maximum penalty for theft from two years imprisonment to five years to align it with the maximum penalty for larceny of tangible goods. The increase in the maximum penalty aligns the penalty for theft of electricity with the penalty for larceny contained in the Crimes Act. This means that our legislation will be consistent with that of other States such as Victoria and Tasmania. Other States have also tightened their legislation to deal with unlawful entering, climbing or being on electrical works. I refer to States such as Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania, and to the Australian Capital Territory.
Finally, the Greens amendments have raised political campaign posters being put on electricity poles, which are still to be found in most suburbs although some powerlines are now being put underground. Certainly in older suburbs we still have all the power poles along each side of the road. I would prefer that the legislation prevented campaign posters being put on poles, full stop. In the past I have written to Integral Energy and others who own the poles asking for permission to put campaign posters on their poles. They have replied that it is not their responsibility, and they cannot and will not give permission. They say it is a local council responsibility to enforce any law relating to displaying campaign posters. It is still very much a grey area as to who has the say. It seems the councils also are reluctant to take action against people putting up campaign posters. I would support campaign posters not being put on poles at all. The Christian Democratic Party supports the bill”, stated Rev Nile.